Sacrificing Families to the Coronavirus for Late Stage Capitalism

Ron Gavalik
Rust Belt Revolution
3 min readMar 24, 2020

The ruling class must deny the population federal resources in order to maintain their power. In solidarity, workers can win the fight for survival.

Norfolk Southern Pitcairn Rail Yard in the East Suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA.

The following story is published for Rust Belt Revolution. Please join the ground zero struggle for human survival and stop the fascist slide into ecocide.

The economic debate surrounding the Coronavirus that’s unfolding in Washington D.C. and across capitalist media has narrowed to the most cynical parameters. The country’s citizens can choose to starve in quarantine or risk their lives to prop up the stock market. The health of our bodies and the welfare of our families is a privilege reserved for the wealthy. Employees and small businesses must return to production and generate revenue, so the ruling class can maintain its choke-hold on power.

In this time of a national health crisis, our elected leaders have gladly thrown trillions of dollars at the market to keep the economy in somewhat stable condition. However, Congress is squabbling to provide the population the most basic financial resources needed to maintain food and housing security. In their villainous ideology, if the people are provided the means to live without the exploitation of wage slavery, the benefactors these political front men serve will lose large portions of their wealth.

There are two economies in the U.S. we often hear about — Wall Street and Main Street. If Congress acts to protect workers and small businesses with the basic financial resources to weather this storm over the coming months, the population will make it. Yes, 401Ks are taking serious hits, and they will continue to flop. However, that’s a small price to maintain our families and our homes until society can bounce back. Once the virus is defeated, we will then rebuild our personal finances in safe, secure environments.

As I write these words, Pennsylvania’s reported Coronavirus cases have grown exponentially from 289 cases on Friday, March 20 to 851 Tuesday, March 24. That includes well over 100 hospitalizations and seven statewide deaths. Without adequate quarantining and safe food access, the pandemic will spiral completely out of control. Hospitals will overfill. People will struggle without medical care. Hundreds of thousands could possibly die alone.

The working class across the fake political party lines must form solidarity with each other. Our goal is simple, to contain the Coronavirus and let it die off over the next few weeks or months. Once we reach a time where no new cases are reported, we can then start a two-week clock to ensure the virus doesn’t return. At that point, we can then get back to our jobs and our lives while a vaccine is developed.

If we come together and force elected leaders to do the right thing, we will achieve far more than our short-term health. We will rediscover our power as a democratic society that can bring about real change for us all.

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Solidarity forever!

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Ron Gavalik
Rust Belt Revolution

Award-winning professional writer in the Rust Belt of Pittsburgh. Whiskey Poet. Media Coord. for the Green Party of Allegheny County. | PittsburghWriter.net